Eli Manning is on pace to join a dubious club for pro quarterbacks, but at least he can take solace in this: Throwing 30 or more interceptions in a single season is really, really hard.

Others have come close and, mercifully, fell short. Dan Fouts had 16 interceptions through six games in 1986, one ahead of Manning’s ridiculous pace this season, but he finished with 22 because … well, let Fouts explain:

"If I remember correctly, my teammates took me out to the parking lot and kicked the (snot) out of me," Fouts, the Hall of Fame quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, said over the phone this week. "Anything to keep me out of the lineup."

Fouts did not remember correctly — he actually missed four games with a concussion — but who can blame him for trying to suppress a season like that?

John Hadl, who joined the (sorry) Thirty Hurty club while playing for the Chargers in 1968, was in flat-out denial.

"I had 30 in a season? I don’t remember that," Hadl said. "How many touchdown passes did I have? Thirty-one, I hope!"

Hadl is one of just 10 quarterbacks in pro football history who knows how it feels to throw 30 interceptions in a season. Four are dead. Four more are either pushing 70 or already there. Only one is young enough that he isn’t getting AARP newsletters in the mail yet, but that’ll change when Vinny Testaverde turns 50 next month.

What New York Giants need: ExecutionWith their 6th straight loss of the season, what the New York Giants (0-6) need is better execution of plays. (Video by William Perlman/The Star-Ledger)

This is akin to a pitcher starting both games of a doubleheader in baseball or playing goalie in the NHL without a face mask. It simply does not happen anymore. Which is what makes the season Manning is having for the Giants so remarkable.

He has 15 picks in just six games. Forget throwing 30. He is on pace for 40 interceptions, something only George Blanda has accomplished in a single season when he threw 42 for the Houston Oilers in 1962.

Manning won’t throw 40 (we think). But he is barreling toward the big three-oh, which would not only put him in the Thirty Hurty Club, but would be a throwback to a different era in the sport.

A quarterback hasn’t thrown more than 30 interceptions in a season since Testaverde — who had 35, second most in history — in 1988. Testaverde was in his first full season as a starter for an awful Tampa Bay team, but his struggles molded his reputation as a turnover-prone passer.

Before that? Richard Todd, who had 30 picks for the Jets in 1980, is the most recent. The rest of the quarterbacks to crack 30 are from the grainy NFL Films era of the game, or in the case of Sid Luckman (31 in 1947), much earlier than that.

So none of the hundreds of quarterbacks to play since the late ’80s — and there have been some bad ones — have had the kind of season that Manning is facing if he continues to throw passes to the other team.

Part of this is his reputation. Another quarterback, one without two Super Bowl MVPs to his credit, might earn time on the bench during a season like this. Part of this is his durability. Manning has started 140 straight games, third most in league history for a quarterback, so he has more chances to fail than an injury-prone peer.

But mostly, members of the club say, the quality of his team is to blame.

"I don’t know Eli, but I like Eli," Fran Tarkenton said. "Here he is, he’s got two pelts on his wall for those two Super Bowls, but if you don’t have that supporting cast — and evidently it’s pretty horrific — you don’t have a chance."

Tarkenton is a Hall of Fame quarterback. He threw 32 interceptions in 1978, his final season with the Minnesota Vikings, while playing for a desperate team facing the end of its championship window.

So Tarkenton, another former Giants quarterback, thinks Manning is in a similar situation. The Giants are bad. So what choice does Manning have but to take chances, statistics be damned?

"Eli is a competitor," Tarkenton said. "He’s trying to put 10 pounds of (sugar) in a 1-pound bag. I’m sure he’s forcing plays. You get caught in that type of thing. He’s trying to make things happen and the more he tries to make things happen, the worse it gets.

"You’re trying to win the game. He’s out there slinging it. I like it. I kind of admire that."

Tarkenton threw those 32 interceptions at the end of his career, when he said shoulder injuries limited his ability to throw a football more than 40 yards. Blanda was 35 when he had 42 passes picked off in ’62, and well past his prime as a quarterback when he had another 30 intercepted in 1965.

This is also part of what makes Manning’s season so unusual. Not only is he in his prime, but he is playing in an era of offensive efficiency when the emphasis on safe, short passes makes it that much harder to throw interceptions in bunches.

"We used to throw the ball down the field more — 15-yard slants, 17-yard comebacks — when you’re really throwing the ball a good distance," said Hadl, who threw 32 interceptions for San Diego in 1968. "Now, you’ve got all these shorter routes."

Adds Fouts: "The game has changed dramatically. I threw so many interceptions on Hail Marys, when they called that play I’d throw up in the huddle."

All this is why Fouts thinks Manning will fall short of 30, even if he has 10 games to get there. Manning is too good to continue to struggle like this, and if the Giants can finally get a lead or two, he can stop making risky throws in the fourth quarter.

Still, he only needs to average an interception and a half a game to join the club — which is not too far from his career average. Throwing 30 interceptions in a season isn’t easy, but Manning sure is making it look that way so far.